Applicants claim priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of German Application No. 299 12 821.0 filed Jul. 22, 1999. Applicants also claim priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7120 of PCT/DE00/02221 filed Jul. 6, 2000. The international application under PCT article 21(2) was not published in English.
The invention relates to a device for providing food to animals, comprising a feed supply and a bowl-like feeding basin that serves for providing the supplied feed.
Devices of the type specified above are employed especially in poultry fattening operations. The great number of feeding bowls installed in a pen have to be cleaned regularly, which is carried out in a washing operation by means of flushing the bowls with spray water in most cases. In order to assure that the washing water will drain from the feeding bowl, the latter is designed in the form of a pendulum-type flap articulated on the device by means of a hinge or the like. In the position in which the feeding bowl is folded up for receiving the feed, it is maintained in that position with releasable locking means such as snap noses, clips or the like. The locking means are released for cleaning purposes, so that the feeding bowl is freely suspended on the fitting of the device, swinging about its pivot axle. With the feeding bowl in said position, the bowl can be cleaned in the installation site of the device, i.e. in the feeding station of the animals by spraying it off.
It has been found that cleaning by spraying with water poses problems because the freely pivoting feeding bowl is always capable of getting out of the way of the jet of water impinging upon it. Depending on the concentration and direction of the jet of spray water impacting it, the feeding basin will perform uncontrolled pivotal movements about its folding axle that even may lead to mechanical damage under certain circumstances. Such movements are undesirable because they obstruct or delay the cleaning process or are disadvantageous in some other ways. With an inwardly drawn edge of the feeding basin, which is present in most cases, residual water cannot drain off completely. As feeding bowls are disinfected as well, as a rule, there is the risk that a highly concentrated solution of disinfectant is adjusted after the residual water containing the chemicals used has dried, such chemicals being, for example dissolved. When such solutions containing harmful substances remain in a feeding basin, this may have adverse consequences for the health of the animals and thus finally for the consumer of meat and eggs as well.
The invention is based on the problem of designing a device of the type specified above in such a way that it can be cleaned when needed in a simple and optimal manner.
Said problem is solved according to the invention in that the feeding basin comprises a cleaning opening located in about the center of the feeding basin that can be opened or closed by means of a closing element.
As the opening is located in the center of the feeding basin, it is necessarily advantageously arranged in the deepest site of the feeding basin. In this way, when the closing element is released, i.e. when the opening is open, optimal drainage of the liquids used for cleaning the feeding basin mainly from the interior of the feeding basin is assured.
It is particularly advantageous that the closing element is a component of the feeding basin that is inserted in the opening in a flush and fitted manner. According to a further development of the invention, provision is made in this connection that both the closing element and the feeding basin comprise locking means that are located on the periphery of the closing element and on the feeding basin in the area of the edge of the latter. Such locking means can be caused to interact with each other and by means of which the closing element can be fixed on or detached from the feeding basin both in the releasing and closing positions.
With the closing element inserted in the opening of the basin, the feeding basin is complete and thus constitutes a closed component of the device serving the purpose of providing food.
When the locking means is released, the entire closing element, which forms a part of the bottom of the basin, can be removed, so that the opening is exposed. This means that optimal cleaning can be carried out on the site of installation because the closing element can be cleaned separately, if need be, and then inserted again in the feeding basin which has been cleaned as well, in order to form the bottom of the feeding basin after the locking means has been fixed again. For facilitating the cleaning operation as well as for enhancing the cleaning effect, provision is made that the closing element has a cone-shaped upward bulging in the center, with the foot of the cone ending in a surface area descending in the direction of the periphery of the closing element. The surface of the closing element thus has a shape that assures that cleaning water impinging upon the center drains off in the direction of the periphery of the closing element. No sharp corners and edges are present that would obstruct smooth drainage of the cleaning agent, in particular of spray water.
It is especially advantageous that the closing element and the cleaning opening are provided with a circular shape. This permits a simple manufacture and yet a fitted seating of the closing element in the opening.
According to a particularly advantageous further development of the invention, provision is made that the locking means comprise projections arranged on the periphery of the closing element, in such a manner that they project beyond the edge of the cleaning opening, as well as for recesses located on the edge of the cleaning opening, whereby each recess is dimensioned in such a way that the projections can be moved transversely in relation to the bottom of the basin while being guided in their associated recesses as soon as the closing element and the feeding basin. have been moved in relation to each other into positions in which the projections and the recesses correspond with one another. The circular shape described above has a favorable effect in this connection in that it is possible in the present case to use a simple rotational movement between the feeding basin and the closing element in order to fix the locking means against each other in a position of rotation, or to detach said locking means from each other in a second position of rotation, so that in said second position of rotation, the closing element can be lowered from the cleaning opening of the feeding basin or removed from said opening. After the cleaning operation, the closing element can be re-inserted in the opening, for example by lifting it, and rotated again into its closing position, in which the locking elements are re-engaged again with each other in their active locking positions. In the course of the lowering or lifting movement in the position of rotation described above, such movement is guided by the recesses, and the position of rotation cannot be changed as long as the projections are engaging the recesses in a guiding manner.
In order to keep the closing element in its opened position serving for cleaning purposes in continuing connection with the device so as to assure, for example that it cannot be lost, the device is characterized in that provision is made for catching elements for the opened closing element. Such catching elements prevent the detached or disengaged closing elements from dropping from the part of the feeding basin that remains connected with the device. The locking means in association with the catching elements are nonetheless capable of holding and fixing the closing element when it is detached from the basin, in such a way that its yielding to spray water, which is disadvantageous for the cleaning process, will not occur. In the course of the cleaning process, the closing element is kept fixed and supported in an adequately firm manner.
Each catching element may comprise an elevation arranged on the closing element and projecting into the feeding basin, with the projecting free end of such elevation comprising a catching nose extending beyond the edge of the opening into the feeding basin.
As soon as the closing element has been rotated in relation to the feeding basin into a position in which the recesses and the projections correspond with each other, the closing element could drop away from the feeding basin and fall down. After a defined distance of such a drop has been reached, the catching elements start to function in that the catching noses extending beyond the edge of the feeding basin act as stop means limiting any further distance of dropping.
The catching noses can be arranged both on the closing element and on the feeding basin. It is useful, however, if the catching elements are arranged on the closing element, whereby in particular the assembly to the closed, finished feeding basin is especially simplified in a particularly advantageous manner in that according to a further development of the invention, the catching elements are structural components in which the projections that have to be guided in the recesses on the edge of the feeding basin, are integrated at the same time.
In order to realize such an embodiment, provision is made according to the invention that each elevation is a radial rib set up on the surface section. The outer end of said rib is provided at the bottom, or in the zone of transition to the closing element, in the form of a projection, as well as in the form of a catching element at the top, or in the area projecting into the feeding basin. A front edge extending between the lower and the upper areas of the elevation present in the form of a radial rib can be designed and used in this connection as a guide means guiding the disengaged closing element as it is moving, until it reaches in the associated recess the opening position predetermined by the action of the catching element. Said recess is located on the edge of the opening. The catching nose of the catching element is located at the upper end of the front edge of the radial rib serving as the guide, and is dimensioned in such a way that it projects not only beyond the edge of the opening in the feeding basin, but continues to extend also across the bottom of its associated recess on the edge of the opening.
The feeding basin and the closing element are preferably molded parts made of plastic, in particular injection-molded parts. Each elevation and each configuration can be molded onto such plastic parts, which means that the manufacturing process can be carried out without problems on the industrial scale especially when such parts are produced in high numbers of units.
So that the activities required for carrying out the cleaning work can be facilitated, the feeding basin comprises adjustment aids for fixing the position of the closing element, which is movable in relation to the feeding basin and preferably can be moved by rotation. Such adjustment aids make it simpler to detach the closing element from the feeding basin by preferably turning it by hand into the respective position of rotation, or rotating it back again after the cleaning work has been completed until it is locked with the feeding basin.
Provision is made in this connection according to the invention that each adjustment aid is a stop that projects into the path described by the elevations of the closing element in the course of the relative rotational movement vis-a-vis the feeding basin. In the special embodiment of the invention specified above, it is thus the radial rib that is moved, with stops projecting into its path of movement in order to determine or fix the final positions of rotation of the closing element versus the feeding basin.
At least one of the stops can be designed in the form of a spring cam and/or equipped with slanted run-up surfaces. This permits turning the closing element also beyond a stop, if necessary, which may be required especially if blockage against rotating back is to be made possible not only in the released position as achieved by the guidance described above, but locking in the closing position between the two stops enclosing the radial rib in said position is to be achieved as well.
For said purposes, the invention makes provision for an embodiment in which each recess is located between a pair of stops set with a predetermined spacing between each other, whereby the third stop equipped with slanted flanks and/or designed in the form of a spring cam is additionally arranged between the stops belonging to the pair of stops, and whereby the recess is located between a stop belonging to the pair of stops and the additional third stop present in between said pair of stops.